Background/Purpose: This study aims to investigate the influence of internalizing symptoms on functional impairment for children with ADHD, and whether child strengths and parenting strengths have moderating effects on this relationship. Methods: Participants included 209 children with ADHD and their caregivers seeking mental health services between the ages of 5 and 11 years. To examine the moderating effects of parenting and child strengths, ordinary least squares regression models were tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS (v3.5). Results: Results suggest that levels of internalizing symptoms influence functional impairment in children with ADHD. Child strengths moderate the relationship between internalizing symptoms and functional impairment when internalizing symptoms are medium to high. Conclusion: Findings from this study demonstrate that facilitating child strengths can help moderate functional impairment for children who experience ADHD and internalizing symptoms.

Twenty-one parents participated in a Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) parent group targeting children’s challenging behavior; 18 parents were in a waitlist control group. All parents completed pre- and post-treatment measures on CPS learning targets, their child’s behavior, and relationship quality, and parents in the treatment group completed measures six months later. Only parents learning CPS reported significant improvements on learning targets and conflict, and changes were sustained six months later. Children’s behavior improved significantly in the treatment group by six-month follow-up. These findings support CPS parent groups as an economical and effective approach for parents of children with behavioral difficulties.

This paper describes a newly established community-based participatory research partnership that brings together professionals from several disciplines to gain greater insight into the needs of children and the families of children seeking mental health services in a community setting. This paper, written from the perspective of graduate students, outlines the successes and challenges that have accompanied the establishment of our university-community partnership. Informed by the interactive and contextual model of collaboration (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2005), this paper outlines key elements of developing and sustaining a community-based partnership and offers reflections on our personal experiences and lessons learned as graduate students within the partnership. Our examination reveals that adequate and consistent communication and the early establishment of trust and mutual respect among partners have been integral components of the emergence and success of this partnership.

OBJECTIVES:This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) approach in home-based family therapy and to explore two hypothesized mechanisms of change.METHOD:Sixty-seven families with children aged 3-12 years old completed a 12-week home-based CPS treatment program. Parent-report measures were completed pre- and post-intervention, including measures on parents' fidelity of using CPS, parents' empathy, children's executive functioning, children's behavioral difficulties, and parenting stress.RESULTS:There were significant reductions in children's behavioral difficulties and parenting stress, and significant improvements in children's executive functioning and parents' empathy. These improvements were greatest for parents who had the greatest fidelity to CPS. Improvements in children's executive functioning and parents' empathy mediated the relationship between parents' CPS fidelity and outcomes.CONCLUSIONS:These results provide evidence that home-based family treatment with CPS may achieve positive child and family outcomes by building children's executive function skills and improving parents' empathy.

Problematic and disruptive behaviours continue to be a pervasive problem in elementary school classrooms across the globe, with recent reports indicating rising trends. The present study seeks to describe a unique sample of children who are seeking mental health services and present with specific problematic school behaviours. Preliminary analyses were conducted to provide a descriptive understanding of the demographic characteristics of the sample of children. Comparative analyses were conducted to investigate the social and emotional functioning of children who engage in minimal problematic school behaviours and children who engage in more severe and frequent problematic school behaviours. Findings indicate significant between-group differences for conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention, and peer relationship problems. Implications and possible suggestions are discussed regarding how key stakeholders can make use of these findings within their school contexts.